ok so some of you might know im pretty new to park and im wondering what you guys do to get mentally prepared for big jumps (30+ feet) or do you just go for it? Im pretty comfortable with everything under that (10, 12, 18, 25) but all of a sudden im realizing i could really fuck up my season if i mess up on these (landing on the knuckle, overshooting and landing on the flat, or just plain eating shit) thanks guys i really wanna get this mental block outta my head!

Investing in good protection wouldn't hurt either. Ass pads and spine protection if you so feel inclined. I'm thinking of getting one for even general riding. POC makes some really light weight ones.

All that aside, you should still definitely take it easy. Don't just get all trigger happy. I only pull out the "EFF it" method after I'm comfortable on the jump for new grabs and stuff. For example, I started out doing indies on a jump and kept sketching about a suitcase grab (in my avatar, that very day). Then I said to myself, "Eff it, I can do indies and land it fine, might as well go for the suitcase" and bam landed the first try. I did bail the next two though lol.

I suggest just hopping over the jump first so you can get the scope of the jump. Just progressively go bigger and bigger until you feel you have the speed and distance down.

Visualize the jump. Visualize it from your perspective (What you hear, feel, see, smell even taste everything is important) then visualize like a camera was taping you and your watching the replay. After you visualize youreself landing it 3 or 4 times tell yourself I can land this trick until you feel confident (I do this befoire every time I try a new trick or even a hard trick that I can already do). The reason I started to do this was because I broke my arms (yes arms as in both) snowboarding and was scared as hell to break something else. So after everytime I did this I would feel confident and believe I could land it so I wasn't scared to break something. It has really helped my riding and I've improved so much just by doing this and getting over my fear. Hope this helps you with your problem.